Two new Pluto moons named by the IAU June 26, 2006
The two small Pluto moons with temporary designations S/2005 P 1 and S/2005
P 2, discovered in mid-May 2005 with the Hubble Space Telescope (Weaver et.
al., IAUC 8625), have now been named respectively Hydra and Nyx by the IAU.
In Greek mythology Nyx was the goddess of darkness and the night, a very
appropriate name for a moon orbiting Pluto - the god of the underworld. To
avoid confusion with the asteroid (3908) Nyx, the Egyptian spelling Nix was
chosen. Hydra is the serpent with nine heads that guarded the underworld.
Kaare Aksnes
Chairman of the Division III Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature
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Pluto Mission News
Pluto's Two Small Moons Christened Nix and Hydra June 22, 2006
The names Nix and Hydra have been approved for the two small satellites of
Pluto discovered in May 2005. The International Astronomical Union (IAU),
the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to
celestial bodies, approved the names this week.
A team of researchers from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder,
Colo., the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in
Laurel, Md., the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and Lowell
Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., used Hubble Space Telescope images to make
the discovery in support of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and the
Kuiper Belt beyond.
"We're very pleased with the decision of the IAU," says Alan Stern,
co-leader of the discovery team and the New Horizons principal investigator
from SwRI. "You're going to be hearing a lot more about Nix and Hydra in
coming years Ñ astronomers are already applying for telescope time to study
their orbits and physical properties. And when New Horizons flies by Pluto
in the summer of 2015, each will be mapped in detail."